Smile (like a Barbie) because the worst is yet to come
by whenthemarshmallowmettheslayer
Summary: Bruce had enrolled Steph back into college (even gave her a Wayne scholarship) after finding out she was in middle of college before somehow ending up in the past. Because of that Stephanie visits the library (because hey who would have guessed college education had changed so much or rather would change so much) only to see a familiar face. (For MinakoTrickster.)


"Seven hells," the words slip out of her mouth before Steph can stop it.

Barbara stares at her from behind the desk, an eyebrow raised. "It's nine circles," Steph's mentor - the watcher to her slayer - corrects as she takes the books from Stephanie. Steph just stares at her as Barbara checks out her books.

She's an idiot and there's this panic building in her chest. Her sight isn't right. Steph blinks and there are tears of happiness in her eyes. She can feel one down her cheek and why can't she speak?

All she had wanted to do was finish some late homework and here she was - in the past where Jason was alive and Barbara could still stand on her own two feet as she hands the library books back to Stephanie.

"Hope you have a good day," the words are curt but Steph gets it. Gotham was full of crazies and Barbara was the Commissioner's daughter. (Wasn't that why the Joker had attacked her? Steph wonders before trying to remember everything and anything she knew on the incident.)

Stephanie nods or rather feels her head bob up and down as thoughtlessly as a bobble-head. She tries to smile (it probably be as plastic as a Barbie) at this young Barbara who isn't just beautiful- Barbara was always beautiful in Steph's book - but young. Her eyes are so young despite being a citizen of Gotham, despite being the (first) Batgirl, and she isn't-

Steph runs out of there. Wind greets her face as she's out of the door which slams shut and her feet pound the pavement instead of the worn library carpet. Her heart is hammering like a drum in her chest and if it doesn't slow down she's gonna die and then she can't help any of them.

She can't breath (she has to breath). Her head is laying against brick and Steph just slides to the ground. Her bag full of library books makes this thump sound but Steph is too busy trying to calm down; she's better than this. She's faced worse - so much worse - than this yet here she is.

(She wants her Barbara; she'd know what to do even if Stephanie would receive the verbal smack down of a lifetime because she'd purposely screwed the timeline up - yet Steph never hears any of the Flash family - you know like batfamily - being told off.)

It's who knows how long till Stephanie gets up from the cement; there's a smile a little too plastic (a little too Barbie like) to not be forced but nobody at campus cares for Steph. She's just another nobody given the Wayne scholarship to attend college.

Hell, Steph's mom doesn't care for Steph because, you know, time travel is kinda hard to believe unless you saw Steph fell out of the sky (except it wasn't the sky since Steph just fell from the air inside a building) before saving Jason from being brutally murdered.

The only people who care about Stephanie and her too bright smiles are people who weren't her biggest fans in her time.

Isn't life funny like that?

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A/N: Originally posted on ao3 under the pen name youngjusticewriter.

Seven hells is a saying in ASoIaF. Nine circles is a reference to Dante's Divine Comedy. Watcher to her slayer is a reference to Buffy. Wayne scholarship was something in Young Justice. I honestly have never come across it any of DC comics I own.

I honestly was finished with this series but MinakoTrickster got me thinking about it because of his or her reviews on . I'm gifting this to MinakoTrickster because of that and how much he or she enjoyed the series. I actually got he or she to say the f word in a review and that made me so happy. Because I cuss too but I try not to on a comment or on a bookmark unless it's brilliant or a certain someone didn't tag Shou Tucker (I did go back and edit the comment though) in their oneshot so getting MinakoTrickster to cuss in review made my day.

I hope you enjoy MinakoTrickster!


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